docs: def singular_noun(self, text, count=None, gender=None):
          """
          Return the singular of text, where text is a plural noun.
  
          If count supplied, then return the singular if count is one of:
              1, a, an, one, each, every, this, that or if count is None
          otherwise return text unchanged.
  
          Whitespace at the start and end is preserved.
  
          """
          pre, word, post = self.partition_word(text)
          if not word:
              return text
          sing = self._sinoun(word, count=count, gender=gender)
          if sing is not False:
              plural = self.postprocess(
                  word, self._sinoun(word, count=count, gender=gender)
              )
              return "{}{}{}".format(pre, plural, post)
          return False